Lenten Devotions in Hard Economic Times

SECOND DAY OF LENT 
        FEBRUARY 18

 
 Deuteronomy 26: 1
 Psalm 91: 9-10
 
A wandering Aramean was my ancestor,
Who went down into Egypt and lived there as an alien…..
 
Is this our state of being?
 
Staunch and in our blood-line,
Do we know ourselves as alien, foreign,
Unwelcome, and abused?
 
You shall make this response to the Holy One, your God,
"A wandering Aramean was my ancestor,
Who went down into Egypt and lived there as an alien…..
 
Make this declaration, we are told,
When you have arrived,
When you have come into the land
That the Holy One, your God, is giving you
As an inheritance to possess,
And you possess it,
And settle in it.
 
Whenever we sense that we have arrived,
That we have made it
To the place that promises
Security and stability and sustenance,
Remember—
We are the offspring of wanderers,
The heirs of aliens,
Daughters of the dispossessed,
Sons of the unsettled.
 
Ultimately,
Those who live in the shelter of the Most High,
Beyond the clutches and claims of earthly habitations,
Will dwell in the care of the Almighty.
 

 
 
 
Deuteronomy cited from New Revised Standard Version of the Bible
Psalm  from Redemption Songs-A 21st Century Descant on the Psalms
commentary in italic